EDITORIAL

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THROUGH TIME AND SPACE

A TRIP THROUGH TIME AND SPACEYou have entered the third volume of Best of Fenix, and the last in the first batch we release of the series. In these volumes we aim to provide some of the very best material from the Swedish gaming magazine Fenix, this time all in English and hard covers. The original publication date varies, for instance you will find the article Roma Umbrarum – Rome of Shadows in this volume. It was written for the second issue of Fenix ever, back in February 2004, by the Godfather of Swedish roleplaying Anders Blixt. He was involved in most of the early Swedish gaming material back in the eighties, and has provided new interesting and inspiring material ever since then. The newest material we feature here is from May 2014, and consists of Uchronias by David Bergkvist and Alternate History by Pete Nash.

Bernard the Barbarian has been a part of Fenix from the beinning. This beer-loving, cunning and lazy barbarian has ravaged the pages of every Fenix, looking for loot, ladies and lager. The creator behind Bernard is Åke Rosenius, the best gaming nerd cartoonist we know of. In this issue you will find some of his other comics previously printed in Fenix (the comment on Equality on page 98 is a personal favourite). We are just as proud to present Evelina Rosenius as co-creator to some of her father’s comic strips about the plump barbarian. She has provided sketches and ideas for new Bernard strips for quite a while, and makes regular occurences in Fenix every other issue for the last couple of years. So why do we find this noteworthy? She started when she was four years old! On page 9 you can read a whole page of comics based on her ideas.

Welcome to an issue with angels and demons, steampunk and space travel, alternate history and stand alone games. Leviathan and Ichneumon are two of our most appreciated role-playing games over the years, and Christoffer Krämer’s Sodom & Gomorrah is possibly the most played board game we ever featured in Fenix. Automatic Intelligence by Johan Englund and Johan Samuelsson quickly became the steampunk favourite so far among our readers.

ÅSKFÅGELN Editor in Chief Tove GillbringArt Director Anders GillbringLead Artist Lukas Thelin

Åskfågeln E-mail fenix@speltidningen.seSveavägen 110 Print BALTO print113 50 Stockholm ISBN 978-91-87987-09-0SwedenBest of Fenix is © Åskfågeln. All rights reserved. Unauthorised use of copyrighted material is illegal. Any trademarked names are used in a fictional manner; no infringement is intended. This is a work of fiction. Any similarity with actual people and events, past or present, is purely coincidental and unintentional.

WRITERS

Tove Gillbring, Åke Rosenius, Kenneth Hite, Pete Nash, Evelina Rosenius, Daniel Krauklis, Karin Tidbeck, Johan Englund, Johan Salomonsson, Christoffer Krämer, Ma-ria Bergius Krämer, David Bergkvist och Anders Blixt

ILLUSTRATION ARTISTSLukas Thelin, Åke Rosenius, Ola Larsson, Magnus Fallgren, Kristoffer Engström, Max Elmberg Sjöholm, Anders Gillbring och Daniel Falck

ABOUT THE COVERWe provide new and unique artwork for various articles in every issue of Fenix. When you get a great artist to enhance the written text and draw inspiration from the words as they are presented it provides that extra quality that makes 1 + 1 = 3. The result enhance each part beyond what it was. But it takes effort to get there, from talented artists such as Lukas Thelin, Åke Rosenius, Ola Larsson, Magnus Fallgren and Reine Rosenberg.

This image was developed to accompany Kenneth Hite’s parasite steampunk rpg Ichneumon. It was chosen as the Best Cover of Fenix in 2013.

Mattias Andersen, Svend Andersen, Johan Andersson, Magnus Andersson, Tomas Andersson, Stefan Anundi, Ingo Beyer, Anton Bexelius, Robert Biskin, Jonas Bjornfot, Jason Blalock, Alexis Brandeker, Hans Brunnström, Jose Luiz Ferreira Cardoso, Edouard Contesse, Astrid Cordenius, Andrew Cowie, Walter Croft, Axel Davidsson, Steve Dempsey, Eugene Doherty, Lorraine Donaldson, Louis Dubois, Bryant Durrell, Johan Englund, David Engström, Mikael Engström, Tina Engström, Johan Eriksson, Henrik Falk, Ken Finlayson, Johan Gustavsson, Peter Baltzer Hansen, Peter Hansson, Greg Hartman, Eric W. Haste, Benedikt Heck, Wilhelm Hedin, Alan Hillgrove, Patrik Hjorth, Jonas Holdt, Antoine Imhoff, Ola Ingemansson, Francisco Jose Garcia

Jaen, Gerall Kahla, Christian Karlsson, Jonas Karlsson, Jörgen Karlsson, Martti Karonen, Scott Kehl, Ed Kiernan, Christoffer Krämer, David Lai, Rolf Larsson, David Leben, William Leicht, Jonas Lidén, Corey Liss, Kym Malycha, James Martin, Igor Coura de Mendonça, Jason J Middleton, Edward B. Moretti, Rick Neal, Jesper Nordström, Robert Ojamo, Christofer Olsson, Juhana Pettersson, Pookie, Robert Rees, David Rehbinder, Brian Rogers, Kelley Rogers, Åsa Roos, Evelina Rosenius, Åke Rosenius, Christian Sahlén, Carl-Johan Schenström, J. Quincy Sperber, Martin Svensson, Mats Torgelsson, Martin af Uhr, Cato Vandrare, Luis Velasco, W. Vernon, Ngo Vinh-Hoi, Carl Wanglöf, Simon Withers and Petter Wäss

BEST OF FENIX WAS MADE POSSIBLE THANKS TO OUR CROWDFUNDERS

A comic by Åke Rosenius, the man behind Bernard the Barbarian.

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CONTENTS

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BEST OF FENIX

52 RUNEPUNK STEAMQUEST

4 ANGELS AND MINISTERS OF SPACE

42 AI: AUTOMATIC INTELLIGENCE

73 THE RESTORATION OF PARADISE LOST

10 DJINN

54 STEAMPUNK SPYCRAFT

90 UCHRONIAS

1059951349

BERNARD THE BARBARIAN

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VOLUME 3

12 LEVIATHAN – BAROQUE ESCAPADES IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST

60 UN-MADE MEN – ANARCHY THROUGH THE STEAM

94 ALTERNATE HISTORY

66 ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR ...

100 ROMA UMBRARUM ROME OF SHADOWS

36 ICHNEUMON

70 SPIES IN RUNEQUEST

106 SODOM & GOMORRAH

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A N G E L STEXT KENNETH HITEILLUSTRATION LUKAS THELIN AND MINISTERS OF SPACE

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the world?Tell me, if you understand.Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!Who stretched a measuring line across it?On what were its footings set,or who laid its cornerstone –While the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?” – Job 38:4-7

Isaac Newton spent as much time po-ring over the details of Scripture as he did studying gravitation, optics, or higher math. He owned more books on

theology (including works on the Kabbalah) than on any other subject – almost a third of his library. Since his personal beliefs were Arian (a heresy which denies the Trinity), he never published the dozens of manuscripts he produced on topics including prophecy, sacred geometry, alchemy, Biblical chrono-logy, and gematria (the numerical values and interpretation of Hebrew and Greek words). A fire in his laboratory in 1693 destroyed 20 years of research; more of his works vanished after his death, often suppressed both by horrified orthodox Christians and shocked secular scientists. For his entire lifetime, Newton searched tirelessly for a unified field theory joining the sacred world of the Bible with the material world of telescopes, prisms, and falling apples. But the smartest man in history couldn’t do it.

Not in our history, anyway.In another 1666, Newton’s breakthrough

intuition of the calculus came alongside another breakthrough intuition: that the mathematical language of the universe’s ope-ration was also the language of the universe’s

Operator. Although humans could not hope to perceive the vastness of God’s utterances, applying calculus could allow ever-closer approximations to the Words of Power. At certain tolerances, humans could inscribe and speak Words that angels would be bound to obey. The easiest angels to bind are the Host, the Zebaim who inhabit the Earth. (Stickler though he was, Newton was not about to point out that the zebaim fit the ancient Greek description of daimones even better: intelligent servitor spirits, in their most common apparitions horned like gazelles.) Depending on which aspect of the angel one binds, a zebah can think with the speed of lightning, or carry ships above the clouds, or drill tunnels, or find minerals, or hurl grapeshot faster than the sound of its passage can travel. They cannot change or influence human minds, and they cannot leave the Earth. Desirous to behold as much of Divine Creation as he could, Newton de-vised a ritual to bind the angelic Galgallim and visited the Moon in a wooden sphere in 1671. For the next five years, he worked ceaselessly with telescopes made from moon-silver, deriving values and true names for the fixed stars. In 1677, Newton summoned one of the Arelim and journeyed to its star Sirius in an orichalcum shell, accompanied by the young astronomer Edmond Halley. A Sirian Ambassador returned with Newton’s party to Earth, and the Ultrastellar Age began.

This Enlightenment science-fantasy (“En-ligh-fi?”) campaign setting probably works best, and certainly works fastest, with a rules set featuring improvised magic: Ars Magica or Mage, say; or with a rules set featuring improvised (angelic) gadgets and powers: Fate or (if you’re already good at it) Hero. (The ideal system is probably something like Stormbringer, with its summoned demons bound into items, but it’s not in print any more and you’d have to improvise a lot of the specifics.) The specifics of Newtonian cabala don’t matter too much in the fine print; just find a good list of angel names online (or

get a copy of my source, Gustav Davidson’s impressive Dictionary of Angels, Including the Fallen Angels) and riff on that. The key limitations are these: the would-be theurgist needs to know a lot of very hard math, speak and read Hebrew, and spend a long-ish pe-riod deriving and researching the specific calculation, angel, and inscription needed to produce an effect, and a shorter but still hours-long period summoning and binding the angel. Once bound, an angel can be used by anyone who can speak a command word, even if they don’t understand it. Destroying the inscription returns the angel to one of the heavens, unless it feels like sticking around and smiting evildoers. Of which there are plenty left to smite, the plenitude of angels notwithstanding.

THE KINGDOMS OF THE EARTHIn the fifty years since Newton first applied calculus to cabala, the balance of power in Europe has shifted decisively to the north. Even leaving Newton’s genius aside, the Royal Society developed scores of evocation-inscriptions (usually called cabalae) and perhaps more importantly invented ways to utilize the angels’ abilities for the good of the British kingdoms. Angels pump water for canals, improve crops, and raise up not just gold or silver but coal and iron. Under the young King William IV, the Stuart dy-nasty continues to reign at home in tolerant Protestant fashion, while his flying frigates carry English goods across the world – and with galgallim conveyance, across the Solar system as well! England’s colonies in America remain loyal, and its factories in India remain profitable.

Only the Dutch sail more places on Earth and in the lower heavens: Dutch forts and entrepots dot Brazil and the Caribbean, the shores of Africa and the Indies, Nagasaki in Japan and Amoy in China. The Dutch carry Arabian coffee to Alpha Centauri, and fetch back phoenix feathers from under the guns

KENNETH HITE

ORIGINAL PUBLICATION FENIX 2/2013

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“And as the Planets remain in their orbs, so may any other bodies subsist at any distance from the Earth, & much more may beings who have a sufficient power of self motion, move whether they will place themselves where they will, & continue in any regions of the heavens whatever, there to enjoy the society of one another & by their own senses or Angels to rule the Earth & convers with the remotest regions. Thus may the whole heavens or any part thereof whatever be the habitation of the Blessed & at the same time the Earth be subject to their dominion.” – Isaac Newton, unpublished treatise on the Book of Revelation

of the arimaspii of Algol. Although their own great astrogoetor Christian Huygens died in 1695, his successors (led by Johann Berno-ulli) continue to chart the Names and Values of the stars. The Dutch also reaped the benefit of their tolerant policy toward the Jews: with mathematics, Hebrew, and angelology stra-tegic resources, Amsterdam’s large Jewish population let it wage a series of theurgical wars at sea and in space that finally forced the English to a rough draw in 1688. Finally allied with Britain and Sirius against Louis XIV’s mad plan to conquer Europe, the Dutch were in at the kill when France and Spain went down, smashed by aerial bombardment and invaded by troops of Rasalgethi mercenaries and Spican freebooters.

Two other northern powers seek to fill the vacuum. Charles XII of Sweden continues his wars against a Russia and Poland dist-racted by the rise of the Jewish Free State. The 700,000 suddenly very powerful Jews in those nations decided that they didn’t need pogroms or ghettoes anymore; under David ben Gideon, they have conquered most of the western Ukraine, Volhynia, and Galicia. Russian anti-Semitism makes it ne-arly impossible for Tsar Peter to resist either the Jews or the Swedes, and he continues to fall back north and east. Charles has made the Baltic a Swedish lake, and guided by his court mathematician Johan Kemper (a con- verted Jew) he plants colonies on Mars and in Cochin-China. In Hanover, the ruling Bruns- wick dynasty had welcomed Jewish refugees from the Hapsburgs even before Newton (most recently the great rabbi and kabbalist Jonat-han Eybeschütz), and they have Newton’s only equal as a mathematician, Gottfried Leibniz. The Elector George I has a robust cabalistic advantage over Prussia and Saxony, his main rivals for the dominance of Germany.

Or rather, for the dominance of northern Germany: southern Germany, like every-where else in Europe south of the Danube, is a Turkish province. The Turkish invasion of Austria in 1683 came bristling with angelic weaponry, flying galleys carving through the skies over the Alps. The Ottomans, like the Dutch, more than tolerated their Jews. The

Sultan’s vizier Koprulu Fazil Pasha turned the Jewish kabbalistic school at Safed in Galilee into an theurgical think tank, farming weapons design out to insane Hungarian mathematicians and mystical Sabbataians in Smyrna. Jewish schools in Thessalonica and Constantinople summoned whole hosts of zebaim to carry cannon and fodder. The Turks took Vienna and Venice; Prague bur-ned to the ground in a mysterious azothic explosion in 1684 (blamed variously on the Jesuits, the Turks, and a rabbinic misprint in the ghetto); Bavaria and Naples fell in 1686. The Turks took Rome (which in the previous generation had expelled its Jews and banned Galileo’s writing) in 1688, and the Pope fled to Avignon and the protection of a Spican admiral who has declared himself Prince of Occitania. Currently, the armies of Sultan Ahmed III are busy to the north invading Russia and the east invading Persia, but the shattered ruins of France and Spain must eventually tempt him back to the West.

With the fall of Rome and without the Pope’s protection, the Jesuits went under-ground all over Europe. They still openly rule Paraguay, and are welcome at academic conclaves from Cambridge to Celaeno. Their scholars, some of the finest in the world, have turned their own attention to astrogoetia, to cabala, and to the calculus. They have mastered the Newtonian arts, and seek to un-derstand more. Joachim Bouvet sifts through Chinese star records in Peking even as the raids of Dutch, Siamese, and Altairian sky-pirates looted provincial treasure-houses for gems and clocks. Bartolomeo de Gusmao de-signs superior sky-ships and galgal-chariots in Brazil, where Valentin Stansel computes the orbits of comets and the force needed to shift them. In a monastery on Titan, Giovanni Girolamo Sacchieri plumbs the depths of non-Euclidean mathematics, looking for a new geometry of talismans to vastly increase their power. Nobody quite knows what they plan to accomplish, or what they already have accomplished. Perhaps it is nothing less than the invocation of the Kingdom of Heaven on the Earth, or the construction of a New Jerusalem in orbit.

THE ORBS OF THE SEVENEach of the planets has its own governing angel, and can be reached by a galgal bearing the correct inscription. The emerald talisman bearing that cabale allows the wearer to walk, breathe, and otherwise survive on the planet, protected by its angel. Most of the planets would kill an unprotected human outright, from cold and poisonous air. Human settle-ments on these worlds comprise tents, huts, and shelters for supplies and equipment, with a few permanent structures in the lar-ger colonies. Although Britain, Sweden, and Holland plant colonies, they cannot govern entire worlds. Wildcatters from all over the world – all over the galaxy – visit the various planets, mostly to prospect for minerals or take astrogoetic measurements. On only Mars and the Moon are a few Names known for phaeltrighim and yerahim, the local equivalents of zebaim: elsewhere, humans must bring their servitor tools from Earth, and cannot always rely on them.The Sun (governed by Raphael) is a planet only in a ritual sense. No attempt to approach the Sun has succeeded; the angelic talisman and its passenger vaporize in the Solar fire. If the Sun is inhabited, it must be by beings no little less than angels themselves; the Turks believe a race of djinn dwells there inside the sunspots.Mercury (governed by Tiriel) is a boiling, free-zing desert constantly shifting and changing. Its rivers of azoth, the philosophical mercury, provide lush oases for those who can com-mand the alchemical arts such as the exiled Chinese prince Yu Tong. Most siphoniers are indentured prisoners dwelling in spherical barracks, filling moonsilver or jupewter tanks with azoth for shipment back to Earth. Azoth is used not only in refineries, alchemi-cal manufactories, and steelworks, but also as a high explosive and a medicine. Mercurians are f lighty, vaporous beings that seldom remain in one thought or place long enough to communicate.Venus (governed by Anael) is a world of sul-furous clouds, volcanoes, and boiling carbo-nated oceans. The animalistic, affectionate, wormlike Venereans dwell in caverns, the only cool, safe place on their hellish world. From those caverns, German and Irish labo-rers drive shafts to mine cuprovene, a supe-rior copper. Cuprovene heliographs can flash messages across interplanetary space; images or words etched into cuprovene become more compelling and beautiful. When alloyed with diostannum, the tin of Jupiter, cuprovene becomes orichalcum, the material needed to construct star-going craft.The Moon (governed by Ofaniel) is a cold world of sharp mountains and frozen quicksand

KENNETH HITE

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Nicholas Fatio de Duillier (born 1664) is a Swiss-born mathematician and astronomer who has worked with Cassini, Huygens, Bernoulli, and (intensely from 1691 to 1693) Isaac Newton. Beginning in 1700, Nicholas Fatio de Duillier developed a method of using jewels as wheel bearings in gears, allowing far more control-led use of angelic power in a mechanism. His laboratories are located in Geneva and London. He is very susceptible to religious mania, and will fly off at a moment’s notice to Java to measure temple carvings or to Deneb to interview a heretical cosmographer before his execution.

THREE CITIZENS OF THE GALAXY

Cotton Mather (born 1663) is a Boston minister, theologian, and natural philosopher. He has assembled a record of magical anomalies throughout New-England, he experiments with growing cold-planet crops in Massachusetts, and is a robust supporter of inoculation. He is one of the foremost proponents of the anti-Newtonian theory that fallen angels are also present in the world, working in disguise through theurgic technology or concealing themselves as extrater-restrials. He agitates for greater moral controls on the creation of cabalae, trusting only those created by Jewish rabbis or by Calvinist divines of his personal acquaintance.

Maria Sibylla Merian (born 1647) is a German botanist and artist who has spent years in Surinam, Al-Rakis, and the Martian lowlands cataloging and illustrating plants and ani-mals from all over the cosmos. She returns to Amsterdam every few years to drop off her sketchbooks and samples at the Sommelsdijk House, which has become Earth’s premier botanical archive. Her health remains robust, and she has not visibly aged since 1700, when she recovered from a malaria attack using a fungus from Regulus. The volume of her journal depicting that fungus was stolen from Amsterdam in 1712.

“And placing their Æons with Angels under them in the orbs of the seven Planets & fixt stars made an Ogdoas of principal Æons or intelligences with Angels under them according to the number of the Orbs & said that they governed the world tyrannically & kept the souls of men below & made them pass into various bodies.” – Isaac Newton, unpublished notes on the history of the Church

seas. The Lunarians are humans, descended from the tribe of Enoch and cut off by the Flood in ancient times. They are tall and delicate; they have a roughly Bronze Age technology, and worship God. They allow their angels, the yerahim, to rule them; their tattooed cabalae allow them to breathe. They mine moonsilver for the Turks, who mint their new kuruş coin from it and who claim the Moon as their own. (Pirates like Henry Every and Olivier Levasseur beg to disagree, and attack Turkish galgal-spheres during eclipses.) Moonsilver also makes superb optics, inoculation needles, and other fine technics. There is a Hanoverian colony on the Moon’s dark side, and a Rigellian plantation in the Mare Fecunditatis.

Mars (governed by Zamael) is an arid world cut by near-dead rivers carrying water from the polar caps to the remaining grassland sea beds. At flood time, they throw clouds of explosively evaporating vapor into the Martian sky, pro-ducing a short, intense global rain that keeps the world barely alive. The lowland Martians (Syrtii) resemble seals, and can swim in sand or water. The highland and canyon Martians (Tharsii) are tall, thin, feathered bipeds; they have angelic knowledge and refine deposits of mars-iron. This metal is strong and light, holds a blade or edge forever, and can contain azo-thic fire reactions. It also doesn’t disrupt magic like too much earthly iron can. Tharsii trade their iron for Earthly (and extrasolar) food-stuffs and manufactures, especially weapons.

Jupiter (governed by Yahriel) is a massive globe covered by a poisonous, eternal stormcloud. The Jovians f loat in the upper clouds and resemble large jellyfish, inf lated like blad-ders and trailing eyes and nostrils on thin tendrils and tentacles. Most humans in the system work or study on the four great moons of Jupiter: the Jesuits maintain a school of celestial mechanics on Callisto, and the main Dutch naval base in the outer system is on the ice-choked waters of Europa. The tin of Jupiter, diostannum, comes primarily from Io, but can be found throughout the system. In addition to orichalcum, diostannum (lightly alloyed into jupewter) makes superior pipes for organs, tankards that promote good cheer, and deadly clockwork toy soldiers. The best and purest floats on the surface of Jupiter’s ocean, impos-sibly far down at the bottom of the atmosphere. Dutch Admiral Philips van Almonde retrieved 100 pounds of that “oceanic diostannum” in an expedition in 1692 at the cost of his own life. Tin soldiers made from that metal can fight and deploy on their own; they still stiffen the guard of Holland’s borders against the Sirians or roaming bands of French soldiery.

ANGELS AND MINISTERS OF SPACE

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Saturn (governed by Kaphsiel) is like Jupiter, covered in thick, poisonous vapors from the freezing, toxic swamp at its core. Its rings are composed mostly of ice and chunks of Saturnian lead, a substance so deadly that only criminals condemned to death work it. Bullets cast from it kill instantly, but leave the battlefield a desert. Conscientious users of Saturnian lead bullets call on a zebah to gather up the spent rounds and dispose of them. The Saturnians, a black-furred, toad-like race of cannibals, live on the moon Rhea; they practice dark sorceries and devour crashed travellers. When Newton visited Jupiter in 1675, he discovered at least two (and possibly as many as four) Outer Planets beyond Saturn’s orbit. They are inhabited, and perhaps even governed by, hellish Titan beings. Newton rejected the notion of fallen angels, but la-ter astrogoetors have not been so skeptical. Whatever lurks out there, no angel will take a human past the orbit of Saturn to discover.

THE MULTITUDE OF THE STARSAstrogoetic research has determined that different types and colors of stars are ruled by different orders of angels. Each order of angel has a corresponding gemstone, from which its talisman is carved. All the stars so far reachable by theurgy have (or demon-strably once had) sentient life on at least one planet, usually similar in character to its ruling angelic order. Most of those stars have natives studying, working, visiting, or seeking their fortune on Earth; like human astronauts, angelic talismans provide life support, gravity, and pressure adjustments.

The Ophanim govern bright blue stars; their stone is amethyst. Their folk value peace and order, although in some cases their concept

of order involves enslaving all other species, as on the prison world of Zeta Ophiuchi. Ophanite species tend to be torus-shaped, often buoyant, with multiple sense clusters

– the Jovians may be ophanites. Mintaka, the brightest star in Orion’s Belt, hosts the Great Court of the Angelic Stars, where sophonts from many worlds bring their disputes. The floating, spiderlike Mintakans are devoted architects and shipwrights; they build sturdy icoscahedral craft for less adaptable species to dwell in and sail through Jupiter and Saturn’s atmospheres.

The Bene-elohim govern blue-white stars; their stone is sapphire. Their folk value family and piety, in many cases breeding sub-species and sub-orders to extend their own blood through the cosmos. Benelohite species tend to be hive species, often insectile or birdlike. Some, like the Achernari, seduce outworlders with soft perfumes and musical voices into interbreeding or adopting their young; oth-ers, like the Rigellians, purchase or conquer warm soils for their panspermian gardens. To better facilitate tracking their own blood-line, the ciliate beetle-folk of Celaeno keep complete records of all known species and worlds in their Great Library. Any sophont who brings seven new species or three new Names may study there for one orbit.

The Arelim govern white stars; their stone is diamond. Their folk value bravery and identity, and thus seem prideful. A great Eye of fiery ether surrounds Fomalhaut, and visitors must prove themselves or see their talisman sundered. Arelite species tend to be radially symmetrical, often aquatic or epiphytic. The winged, stalked Sirians visit the courts of Earth as if they expect homage; this was true even before they annexed Ver-sailles as their Embassy-Garrison following the Sirian-French War of 1694-1697.

The Favashim govern yellow-white stars; their stone is topaz. Their folk value empathy and understanding; the Procyoni eat strang-ers to incorporate their wisdom. Favashite species tend to be centauroid or hexapodal in build, and warm-blooded. The scaled, long-necked natives of Al-Rakis in Draco cultivate rare herbs and resins that open the gates of perception, allowing telepathy, unnatural feats of calculation and astrogoetics, and even glimpses of the future and visions of the past.

The Grigorim govern yellow stars like our Sun; their stone is emerald. Their folk value the arts and sciences, often at the expense of other virtues. The Neurge of Capella has banned religion on her world in favor of soulless artifice; the Capellan sacred symbol is the zero. But it must be said that Capel-lan navigators need no angels to find their way to other stars. Grigorite species tend to have four limbs, hands, and two eyes. The inhabitants of Sharatan in Aries resemble armadillos, but are natural geologists; Sha-ratan prospectors in the Solar system attract flocks of human (and other) miners looking to exploit their finds.

The Kerubim govern orange stars; their stone is garnet. Their folk value safety and pru-dence, leading some to label them cowards or selfish. As against this, the tentacled inhabitants of Arcturus wage all their wars to species genocide: the empty worlds of Alphecca, Unukalhai, and Vindemiatrix de-monstrate their resolve. Arcturan visitors on Earth receive a wide berth, and fortunately restrict their travel to safe human lands like Britain and Holland. Kerubite species tend to be protean, vegetable, or multiply redun-dant, growing or losing organs and limbs and wings as needed. Inhabitants of Aldebaran can actually fly between planets using solar wind (usually working out mathematical problems or chess games the while) although they use angels when haste is an issue. Dwel-lers at Epsilon Eridani reshape their internal organs and brain structures while keeping an outwardly humanoid form.

The Malakim govern red stars; their stone is the ruby. Their folk value strategy and resolve, making them puissant warriors and dange-rous conspirators. If Betelgeuse, Antares, and Gamma Crucis did not constantly war with each other, any of them might conquer a score of stars. Malakite species tend to be cold-blooded and possess unusual senses. The bat-like folk of Scheat can smell angels, for example; the eight-armed Namalwaridi can manipulate heat. The taciturn, shelled Mirans do not explain what they sense or how, but a squadron of chariots from Mira waits on Saturn’s moon Tethys for something to trigger their crusade.

“Why then shall not we make use of the same Judgment that we would in that case; and conclude, that our Star has no better attendance than the others? So that what we allow’d the Planets, upon the account of our enjoying it, we must likewise grant to all those Planets that surround that prodigious number of Suns. They must have their Plants and Animals, nay and their rational ones too, and those as great Admirers, and as diligent Observers of the Heavens as our selves; and must consequently enjoy whatsoever is subservient to, and requisit for such Knowlege. What a wonderful and amazing Scheme have we here of the magnificent Vastness of the Universe! So many Suns, so many Earths, and every one of them stock’d with so many Herbs, Trees and Animals, and adorn’d with so many Seas and Mountains! And how must our wonder and admiration be encreased when we consider the prodigious distance and multitude of the Stars?” – Christian Huygens, Cosmotheoros

KENNETH HITE

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EVELINA ROSENIUS

Story: Evelina Rosenius

Story: Evelina Rosenius

Story: Evelina Rosenius

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Mythological creatures of the Islamic world, jinn are magical entities which live in a realm beyond our own, unseen by the

humans with whose lives they capriciously meddle. Placed in Islamic theology between humans and angels, the djinni, ifrits and ma-rids were powerful spirits. Capable of good or evil, they could be arrogant, malicious yet still be capable of benevolence when it suited them.

As creatures of “smokeless, scorching fire” they are for the most part intangible, but could affect the world of mortals and per-form great deeds of magic. This makes them a perfect creature to create for RuneQuest6. Of course the power and scope of jinn vary from Aladdin’s genie of the lamp to the de-sert haunting ghuls of Arabic superstition. However, for fun we’ll model the following jinn on those from the popular Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud (which I highly recommend); treating these supernatural entities as spirits which can be summoned and bound to the magician’s will.

THE HIERARCHY OF THE JINNThe jinn in the Bartimaeus books are roughly in line with the mythological hierarchy of Islamic study. Jinn are categorised by their magical strength and standing within jinni society. Since RuneQuest already possesses a way of categorising spirits based on their magical power, it is an easy matter to uses the same mechanics to describe them.Imps – INT 2d6+6, POW 1d6+6, CHA 1d6. The weakest of the jinn, their magical abilities are relatively feeble but make good messengers of spies. They are often spiteful and rude. Intensity 1 spirits, imps know 1d3 Sorcery spells and have skills starting at 50%.Foliots – INT 2d6+6, POW 1d6+12, CHA 2d6. Jinn of more capable strength, they make good servants and labourers, but show little imagination; nor even a likable personality, most being fawning lackeys. Intensity 2 spi-rits, foliots know 1d3+3 Sorcery spells and have skills from 70%.Djinn – INT 2d6+6, POW 1d6+18, CHA 3d6. Potent spirits able to perform greater deeds of magical creativity, djinn often strain the skills of a magician to summon and bind to their will – not least because of their propensity to use their abilities is cunning, resourceful ways. Their personalities range from polite servility to intimidating rebelliousness. In-tensity 3 spirits, djinn know 1d3+6 Sorcery spells and have skills of at least 90%.Ifrits – INT 2d6+6, POW 1d6+24, CHA 4d6. Spirits of great ability and generally greater maliciousness, ifrit show a particular affinity to fire. Whilst thought of as less intelligent SPIRITS BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL

DJINNTEXT PETE NASH

ILLUSTRATION LUKAS THELIN

PETE NASH

10

ORIGINAL PUBLICATION FENIX 2/2013

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DJINN

than the lower ranking djinn, this is not strictly true. Rather the ifrit rely more on flexing their tremendous magical strength in brute-force approaches, than insightful or clever application. Intensity 4 spirits, ifrit know 1d3+9 Sorcery spells and have maste-red many skills to a minimum of 120%.Marids – INT 2d6+6, POW 1d6+30, CHA 5d6. The most powerful of these spirits, they are rarely summoned due to their immense magical strength and dangerous inclinations. It often takes the coordinated efforts of several magicians to attempt such a feat, or a great deal of flattery. Most marids are over-bearingly arrogant and conceited. Intensity 5 spirits, marids know 1d3+12 Sorcery spells and their skills start at 150%Typical skills for jinn are: Brawn, Conceal, Customs, Deceit, Evade, Influence, Insight, Invocation, Locale, Perception, Sing, Stealth, Unarmed, Willpower, and one extra professional skill per Intensity of the jinn as a personal interest.

POWERS AND ABILITIESAll jinn possess a number of inherent abilities as the result of their spiritual form. These powers cost no Magic Points, but still require the spirit to spend an Action to perform. Jinn abilities are as follows:Invisibility: Jinn are naturally invisible, but can make themselves visible with conscious ef-fort. Since jinn can see others of their kind, invisible or not, they require the use of the Stealth skill to sneak past one another.Intangibility: Jinn pass through solid objects un-hindered. This includes trying to lift or move objects, unless they use their Telekinesis ability (read more about it later in this article). Likewise, they are immune to non-magical damage, although they can injure each other using ‘physical’ attacks. Shape-Shifting: Since they lack a corporeal body, jinn may change their appearance at will. This can be the form of a human, animal, or a monstrous hybrid of the two. Imaginative jinn can even take the shape of inanimate objects or abstract visual phenomena. Most jinn have 1d3 favourite shapes with which they feel the most comfortable. A jinn can identify another jinn individual if they win an opposed test of Perception versus Deceit.Size-Shifting: When manifested jinn have si-milar proportions to a human of a SIZ equi-valent to the jinn’s POW. If the jinn desires they may further enlarge themselves by a multiple up to their CHA, or similarly shrink by applying the same number as a divisor. Of course as spirits they possess no true SIZ characteristic so they can be bound into any object such as a ring or lamp, but some jinn like to overawe viewers by swelling up to gigantic proportions.

Flight: Jinn usually travel by flying from place to place – although they are happy to mimic walking if fitted to their adopted form. At top speed they can move at INTx5 metres per round.Telekinesis: To interact with the physical world jinn instinctively move objects via telekinesis, providing part of their intangible body is touching it. They have a pseudo STR equal to their POW, though for the expenditure of a Magic Point they can multiply this limit by a factor of five, solely for the purpose of shifting exceptionally heavy objects.

The Action Points, Strike Rank, and Magic Points of the jinn are calculated as described on page 203 of RuneQuest. Spirit Damage is based upon the Jinn’s Willpower skill, whilst its Da-mage Modifier (used for hand to hand combat) is calculated using POWx2 instead of STR+SIZ.

SUMMONING AND BINDING In the Bartimaeus stories the summoning of jinn is a dangerous activity, with weak willed magicians often tricked to their deaths by the irritated spirit. Such attempts require extremely careful preparation, the use of va-rious paraphernalia to aid concentration and drawing of pentacle or other magical wards to trap the jinn whilst it is being coerced to the summoner’s will.

The most important aspect of jinn sum-moning is knowing the true name of the entity called. Each jinn holds this name as their most prized secret, for without this, a magician cannot summon them to perform years of enslaved servitude. As any jinn called to the material world is prevented from being summoned again, until they are released back to the realm from which they originated; most magicians hoard such snip-pets of information, being the basis of their personal power.

Conjuring a jinn is similar to the Animism rules concerning summoning spirits. The magician uses their Trance skill to perform the ritual, which calls the named jinn (if av-ailable) to the prepared pentacle. This initial stage costs the conjurer a number of Magic Points equal to the Intensity of the Spirit. Once manifested, the real struggle occurs. This comprises of a battle of wits and will between the magician and the jinn, repre-sented by the equivalent of a Spirit Combat using the Binding skill of the conjurer and the Willpower of the jinn.

If the jinn is reduced to zero Magic Points before their summoner, then they are chained to the magician’s will and can be forced to personally serve until released from service (or the premature death of the magician); or they can be eternally bound into an object from which there is no escape (The Indefinite

Confinement). Although some jinn might willingly serve a master at first, extended enslavement twists their attitude so that the magician must force them to perform each and every task – requiring a successful Bin-ding test and the expenditure of a Magic Point.

Conversely, if the jinn wins the battle they break free from the conjurer’s control, al-lowing free use of their magic or immediate escape to their home realm. Whilst an unleas-hed imp may be an aggravating annoyance, losing control of a Djinn might result in the conjurer being consumed, leaving a pile of picked-clean bones.

WEAKENING OF BOUND JINNJinn in the physical world, whether bound to attending the will of a magician or trap-ped within an object, are prevented from rejuvenating themselves. They can neither heal any damage suffered, nor recover Magic Points. Unlike normal RuneQuest spirits, jinn actually take damage to their POW characte-ristic which can only be recovered if allowed to return to their home realm. Running out of POW leaves a jinn helpless, open to utter and final destruction.

Using magic drains jinn of their strength. A jinn can replenish its Magic Points if permit-ted to feast upon the life-force of a living crea-ture, effectively recovering a number equal to the victim’s POW characteristic. If a jinn performs the dubious act of consuming an-other jinn, then they absorb whatever Magic Points were left to the entity before its death.

JINN MAGICJinn use sorcery to perform their miraculous acts of magic. Whilst imps are barely capable of harming small animals, the largest marids can create vast palaces in a single night. Jinn do not use the Shaping skill per se, each spell costing a single Magic Point to cast with a Range of POW in metres, Duration of POW minutes, a single Target, and a Magnitude of twice the jinn’s spirit Intensity.

The following spells are suitable for jinn with, where known, the associated names utilised in the Bartimaeus books placed in parenthesis – most of which are rather de-structively orientated!

Abjure, Animate, Banish (Void), Castback, Damage Resistance (Shield), Diminish SIZ (Compression), Enhance SIZ, Enlarge, Hide Life, Hinder, Holdfast, Imprison (Nexus), Mystic Vision (Pulse), Neutralise Magic (Flux), Palsy (Spasm), Phantom, Protective Ward, Re-pulse, Revivify, Sculpt, Sense, Shapechange, Shrink, Smother (Convulsion), Spell Resis-tance (Shield), Wrack (Detonation, Plasm, Inferno, Pestilence, Essence Lance)

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